Mary Jane's Shoes

Musings of one person among many. Not exceptional in any way, as with all, I have exceptional experiences and varied reactions to those events. Mine is one of many life stories and how I manage and cope with the events which make my life my own, I attempt to put forth by way of my writings.

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Silence Has Swallowed Sound

June 14, 2016

Silence has swallowed sound.

Blinders have shadowed sight.

We strain to find any noise,

to see any light.

~

We live in an era varied from our country’s past. A call for musket owning by our citizenry was answered. Those in 1791, ratified that which was proper for the time, simply and without knowledge of our future. Our founding fathers would be the first to seek appropriate change for the society in which we now find ourselves. They were believers in change for safer, more fair lives for all. To live amongst those who have been under investigation by the FBI, yet still carry assault rifles, is neither safe nor fair.

~

For family and household protection, a gun without large capacity magazines will still maim an intruder, or kill if a life is truthfully threatened. Guns meant for military use, guns made for war are not necessary in the home. To a related point, hunters will hunt. Some will for the food on their tables, some for sport. Though I do not condone the latter, in either situation, never is an assault rifle a necessary piece of equipment to put down a deer or a duck.

~

To further this argument assault weapons shouldn’t be available for the general public to purchase. My belief firm and simple is this. Retroactively, they should be surrendered by the general public. If some want the thrill of shooting an assault rifle, they should be available for them at shooting ranges and used only there. Hobbyists can satisfy this desire in an enclosed place where the general public isn’t and doesn’t feel threatened, nor live in fear.

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It is grotesque that background checks for all aren’t the norm, and are not detailed and somewhat lengthy. A hunter or a parent wanting household protection should have no problem with this. If they cannot wait that is grounds for a modicum of concern on the part of the seller. The police can provide protection in the interim, if an urgent situation makes itself evident. It takes months, years, to be fully licensed to get behind the wheel of a machine that kills many each week. Can owning a gun take at least as long to process? Those asking for stiffer background checks are not even asking for the same as drivers’ licenses.

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In light of recent global massacres, we find more evidence of the radicalization of citizens in many countries is an entity that needs to be addressed. Though I do agree with the current president’s stand on gun sense, whole heartedly, I feel he has blinders on when acting to fully protect the United States’ citizenry. I did write ‘fully,’ meaning as well to say ‘all encompassing.’~Yes. All crimes of this magnitude involve hatred, whether based on religion, race, sexual, identity, or what is perceived as a decadent lifestyle unacceptable to another section of our world’s population. Those that seek to maim and kill Americans, for any reason, those that seek to eradicate our lifestyle of freedom and love for all, need to be called out for the reasons they take the actions they do. To refer to the Orlando Massacre as a hate crime is correct. To refer to this heinous crime as radicalization and extreme perversion of a religion is correct ~ radical Islam. This latest horror on our land is both and needs to be handle in that fashion. All have to except it is not either or, and make decisions accordingly. With the degree of hatred and many zealous perversions of thought we live with in this society in the 21st century, we must strip the potential perpetrators of some of their weapons. True Americans can see the sense in this if they clear love the country in which they reside, and love the people with all their differences and make our home what it is.